Our Journey Over Seas
by Eternal White Rose
Summary: On an island to the south, there is a tradition that on a boy's tenth birthday, he dons the green garb based on the Hero of Legend for one day. Link turns ten and his adventure begins.


**Our Journey Over Seas**

* * *

Link is seventeen when he brings Ganondorf down with the help of the Seven Sages and Zelda.

Finally, the journey is over.

* * *

Zelda offers to send him back to his childhood.

Link refuses. He steps away from Zelda when he returns the Ocarina of Time to her, but she continues to insist. He doesn't want to return to his childhood. What good would that do for him, especially when he'll most likely keep all of his memories?

He doesn't want to look at Zelda's face when they both leave the rubble, side by side, because he knows she's incredibly disappointed in him, after all that he's done and been through.

* * *

For years, Link lives in Hyrule Castle Town, helping with the rebuilding, but he doesn't want to live in a place that became ruined because of one mistake he made.

* * *

One day, Link leaves.

Returns the Master Sword to the Temple of Time, doesn't even say goodbye, and just leaves through the Lost Woods.

No one sees him go.

* * *

Even though Ganon had been sealed away in the Sacred Realm, he returns with a cold wind over Hyrule, and the people panic. They beg for their Hero of Time to return and vanquish the evil, but he doesn't.

He never does.

And so the Hylians pray to the Gods for help.

* * *

The Gods answer the prayers of the people.

They flood Hyrule to the mountaintops, only giving half a warning for some to escape to safety.

Hyrule falls beneath the waves.

* * *

Centuries pass, and the survivors evolve to better be adapted to the Great Sea.

* * *

On an island to the south, there is a tradition that on a boy's tenth birthday, he dons the green garb based on the Hero of Legend for one day.

Link turns ten and his adventure begins.

* * *

Aryll wakes him up from his slumber at the lookout tower, her seagull friends all following her around like they always do. She tells him that their grandmother is waiting back at the house with a present.

He gets the green tunic, his sister allows him to borrow her telescope for the day, and there's a giant bird being chased by pirates.

Oh, and that giant bird has dropped a girl into the forest at the top of Outset. What a birthday this is.

* * *

Link gets a sword from Orca, goes up to the forest, and saves the girl. She's a pirate named Tetra, and she tells Link that the bird from earlier has been stealing girls with pointed ears for a long time.

Aryll has followed Link up to the forest, and on the bridge with the missing plank, she gets snatched by that bird.

* * *

Link begs Tetra to join her band of pirates in an attempt to get Aryll back.

She denies your request at first—"you're not properly equipped, where's your shield, does your grandma know that you're going to leave with pirates?"—so he returns to his house where the family heirloom hangs on the wall upstairs. But his grandmother has it instead, and news travels fast here on Outset so she knows Aryll has been taken away and begs him-pleads with everything she has that he go get her and bring her home safe.

He leaves with the pirates and doesn't realize that he's saying goodbye to his home for quite some time.

* * *

Link's surprisingly okay with boats. He doesn't get seasick and makes friends with most of the pirates, mostly with Niko down under the deck. On their trip to the Forsaken Fortress, he learns how to jump from rope to rope, and right as he lands on the platform Niko is standing on, Tetra calls for the boy.

They've arrived at the Forsaken Fortress.

* * *

Link explores most of the Fortress without a sword because Tetra's aim is absolute garbage. She also snuck in a magic gossip stone so now she can always keep an eye on him. How _exciting._

But he does find Aryll, locked in a cell with two other young girls. He's so close to rescuing her, so close to getting her back and bringing her home to his little island, but that giant bird returns and takes him away. He is brought to a man that Link could only describe as the literal embodiment of evil, but doesn't get to see his face because he's thrown out into the open ocean.

* * *

Link wakes up on another boat.

It's day time now, but Link isn't sure how long he's slept. When he sits up, the boat talks.

Link thinks he's still dreaming.

It introduces itself as the King of Red Lions, and found Link drifting in the middle of the ocean and dragged him back to this island known as Windfall. It tells Link the story of Ganondorf, the man the boy had met at the Forsaken Fortress, and how only the Master Sword could defeat him and calm the temperamental winds once and for all. It also explains that it would have brought Link elsewhere but it has no sail, so Link buys him one.

* * *

They set off to the East, towards Dragon Roost.

The Rito are having a problem with their dragon deity, Valoo, and Link, along with the chieftain's young advisor, go to Dragon Roost Cavern to try and figure out what is going on with the dragon.

He loses Medli after throwing her up to the cavern, and wonders exactly what the concept of _working together_ means to her.

* * *

Link defeats Gohma, who was sitting underneath Valoo in a molten pit and Valoo returns to normal when there's no longer a bug clawing at its tail. It allows Komali, the son of the chieftan to go up to Valoo to get a scale and finally get his wings. He gives Link Din's Pearl and Link feels its steady beat—as though it's a heartbeat—in the palms of his hands.

* * *

Link learns the Requiem of Wind after the King of Red Lions gives him the Wind Waker. Now he can control the wind.

Link is a _God's conductor_ and that's as close to being a God as he could get.

* * *

Their next stop is the Forest Haven, down near the south of the Great Sea.

He meets the Great Deku Tree, who is very willing to give Link the pearl but then a Korok named Makar has apparently gone missing in the Forbidden Forest. Link doesn't have any time to wonder why anyone would name something the _Forbidden Forest_ but all of a sudden he has a Deku Leaf from the Deku Tree and he's on his way to that very Forest.

* * *

Link saves Makar from Kalle Demos and gets Farore's Pearl. At that moment, Link realizes he isn't really sure how long he's been away from home and there's this nagging feeling that it'll still be much longer.

It also feels like he's done this before—this whole… _adventuring_ thing. But he shakes it off because this whole thing is the first time he's been off of Outset.

* * *

Link is told that Jabun has the last pearl, and that the great water spirit resides on Greatfish Isle.

But when Link gets there, it's in ruins. There's a storm brewing above them and the island is in pieces and Jabun is nowhere to be found.

Quill, the postman for the Rito, has followed him and tells Link that Jabun now resides on the island where Link was born, behind a impenetrable slab.

So Link sets sail for Outset, but not before making a quick stop.

* * *

On Windfall, Link finds the pirates.

He needs bombs if he wants to get to Jabun (really, he'll probably need bombs eventually), and he's sure that Tetra and her gang have some. If they're not willing to share, then he'll just get the password and sneak under the deck.

And he does. Tetra sees him, and says outloud that they're not leaving until dawn, so he has some time to play with Niko below deck and grab the bombs before sunrise.

Tetra uses the stone to yell at him about it anyway.

* * *

Link returns to Outset and opens the way to Jabun.

The Water Spirit speaks to the King of Red Lions in a tongue Link doesn't understand but recognizes as the same language that Valoo spoke. Jabun gives him Nayru's Pearl and they are only one step away from getting the Master Sword, the blade of evil's bane.

* * *

...Except they're not, and instead, the pearls open up the Tower of the Gods, which is a trial bestowed by the Gods to see if there is a Hero worthy of their blessing.

And Link goes through it, quickly, because he only came here to get a sword to beat an evil dude and save Aryll. But he has to go through all this nonsense.

* * *

Link learns the Command Melody, defeats Gohdan the Great Arbiter, and rings the bell atop the Tower of the Gods.

* * *

Link is taken under the waves to the lost kingdom of Hyrule.

He's been told stories of this lost land but that's all Link ever thought they were. Stories. So being under the water, walking through this decaying castle, he realizes that it's so much more than a children's bedtime story.

It's the _history_ of the world.

* * *

Link pulls the Master Sword out of the pedestal in the basement and every frozen monster upstairs comes back to life.

Oops.

* * *

When they return to the surface, they run into Cyclos, the brother of Zephos, and defeat him. The Cyclone God gives Link the power over his cyclones and now Link can basically just teleport and his body vibrates at the idea of faster travel.

The faster he can get to his sister, the better.

* * *

Link returns to the Forsaken Fortress and frees Aryll with the help of the pirates.

He defeats the Helmeroc King and goes to confront Ganondorf for what he believes will be the final time. He has the sword of evil's bane, he has experience under his belt thanks to the Tower of the Gods, and his sister is safe so he doesn't have much else to worry about.

But the Gods have different plans when Ganondorf knocks the boy down with a single swipe of his hand.

The Master Sword does not sparkle, he says, with the power to repel evil. It's a useless tool that could never defeat him. He goes on about how powerful he is until Tetra sneaks in and attacks the bigger man.

There's a shiny triangle, the Rito take both of the children and escape, and Link watches as Valoo, with his tiny wings barely holding up his incredible huge body sets the pirate ship hideout on fire.

* * *

Link and the King of Red Lions talk a little before Tetra wakes up.

They're waiting in the safety of the Castle ruins, and Tetra hasn't woken up since their scuffle with Ganondorf, so Link passes the time by talking with his boat companion. He asks questions that the King of Red Lions evades with a practiced ease that it seems to believe Link won't catch, but the boy lets it slide as Tetra begins to wake up.

They enter Hyrule Castle together and head into the basement.

* * *

Tetra is the last of the royal bloodline of Hyrule, the Princess Zelda.

Link prefers her as a pirate, but the Gods will be the Gods and Link doesn't want to go against their divine plans.

The King of Red Lions is actually the king of Hyrule, who has been guiding Link this entire time to help bring the King of Evil down once and for all.

Link doesn't like that he's been used this entire time, and doesn't like that he has to go wake two sages to restore power to the Master Sword, and doesn't like that he has to spend _more_ time away from his grandmother and his little island and his sister—

But he can't go against the king. Because the king is as close as Link is with the Wind Waker to the Gods.

* * *

Link makes a stop to the Mother and Child Isles first, because he's sailed past it multiple times but he's never been able to go inside the Mother Isle.

Thankfully, the Ballad of the Gales is the sure-fire method of getting inside the large circular island. It's a rust colored forest with a pond on the inside, and Link wants to step out of his boat to explore but a small holographic creature appears from the pond, a Great Fairy doll hanging limply from her fingers. She's the Fairy Queen, she says, and she blesses Link's arrows with the magic of fire and ice.

She likes him, she says, and Link feels bashful before the King of Red Lions reminds him that there's a world to save.

* * *

The Fire Mountain is the worst thing ever.

 _Ever._

Power bracelets are in no way a good prize for getting through the fiery maze of danger.

* * *

Link has never seen a creature like Laruto before, and that's because the flood wiped a lot of them out and then Ganondorf slaughtered the rest of them. She teaches his the Earth God's Lyric and asks if he could find someone that plays the same instrument as her—a harp painted a beautiful bright gold.

He's seen a harp like that on the back of a Rito girl.

* * *

Medli isn't very keen on leaving Dragon Roost to follow Link to some obscure Earth Temple at the South of the Great Sea. She doesn't really believe that she's an Earth Sage, but she plays the song he conducts for her either way.

It's after she promptly passes out and gets told that she really _is_ the Earth Sage that she changes her mind.

She tells Link she'll meet him on his boat, and quickly after Komali shows up with a small flower asking for Medli. Link can't bring himself to tell the poor young man that Medli is waiting to go risk her life to bring power to a sword and lies.

Komali nods.

He's willing to wait for her, he says. He'll wait until she comes to play like she does every evening.

Link and Medli leave Dragon Roost silently, because Link can't look at her without wanting to cry about Komali's lost love.

* * *

When they arrive at Headstone, Link leads her to the blocked entry and conducts the Earth God's Lyric to open the way.

They fall into the Earth Temple—into the shadows.

* * *

The Protector of the Seal Jalhalla was a joke of an enemy, being just a bunch of small poes inside of a mask.

But Link defeats him and he and Medli step into the center of the room and restore half of the Master Sword's power.

* * *

The Ice Ring Isle is just as bad as Fire Moutain.

Link's face burns from falling on the ice more than should have been necessary.

All for a pair of metal boots.

* * *

Fado in the Wind Temple nestled in Gale Isle reminds Link a little of himself. They're both in green, both blond but one has had his entire race eradicated and now can't be the Sage.

This boy has a violin, and Link knows Makar has one from the celebration the Koroks held after the small creature was rescued. He doesn't want to take something so vulnerable from its home, but he has no other choice.

Fado teaches him the Wind God's Aria, and Link cyclones back to the Forest Haven.

* * *

Koroks are the cutest and Makar not only has his own little hiding place behind a waterfall but he rides on the King of Red Lions' _head_ when they're on their way to Gale Isle.

Link feels so bad for Makar, but the Gods' word is final.

* * *

The Wind Temple is a maze of Floormasters, Wizzrobes, fans and other annoying puzzles that make Link lose Makar more than once.

He stops midway for a split second because he wonders just how long it's been since he's seen his grandmother. Or his sister. Or his home island.

* * *

He defeats Protector of the Seal Molgera, and restores full power to the sword with Makar. The young Korok stays behind in the temple, bidding Link the saddest farewell he's ever come to face.

* * *

When he speaks to the King of Red Lions again, the boat tells Link that their quest is not yet over, and that the boy needs to assemble the eight shards of the Triforce of Courage, long lost under the waves and only accessible by using difficult to decipher treasure charts.

Link wants to scream. This boat has done enough hiding secrets.

* * *

One of the treasure charts is on Outset, so Link can see his grandmother.

* * *

Link meets up with Tingle, a man-child of a being that asks for too many rupees to decipher one map, and there's _eight_ of them, so Link may as well just kiss his entire wallet goodbye. All that deep-sea treasure hunting for this _garbage._

It's very safe to say that Link regrets saving the smaller green fairy-man from the prison on Windfall.

* * *

Too many rupees later, Link has the entire Triforce of Courage assembled. His wallet has never felt lighter, and it's not a comforting thought.

* * *

Link returns to the Tower of the Gods with his fully powered up Master Sword and completed piece of the Triforce. The Gods watching over him praise him with how far he's come.

He simply smiles because all he wants now is to return to his grandmother and Aryll on Outset.

* * *

Link returns to the kingdom beneath the waves, ready to take on whatever awaits him at the bottom of the ocean floor. He finds that Zelda has been captured by Ganondorf and in her place in the basement is a lone Mighty Darknut, surrounded by a ring of fire.

Something inside Link stirs as he fights the enemy, telling him that this isn't the first time the princess has been taken from right under his nose.

* * *

He fights his way to Ganon's Tower, makes it through the trials and fights all the bosses he's fought before again, fights multiple, frankly, _annoying_ Phantom Ganons, then finally meets up with the man of legend face to face. He's got Zelda lying unconscious in a grand bed in front of him, and then, the bed is gone, there's a sickening number of crunching bones and it turns out Ganondorf is a lot stronger that the King of Red Lions had told him he would be.

Puppet Ganon is Link's next battle and three forms is three too many.

* * *

Once Puppet Ganon is taken care of, because thank the Gods that they blessed Link with Light Arrows, and Ganondorf has taken Zelda high up the tower, Link ascends the overly large room to get to the top of the tower, ready to take on the King of Evil once and for all.

But Ganondorf has other plans, and he knocks Link down, snatching his Triforce of Courage and Zelda's Triforce of Wisdom, combining them with his Triforce of Power to bring them together in front of him. His wish, he explains, is to have the sun shine on Hyrule once again, for the Gods to take away this forsaken water and give him the land he once craved and sought back to him. How his people came from a wasteland desert where the days were scorching and nights freezing, and now these Great Sea dwellers live above the ruins of a kingdom without even realizing it. Ganondorf's only wish for the Triforce is for him to rule the world. So he extends his hand to the Golden Triangles.

But King Daphnes is faster. Faster, in the sense that Link doesn't even see him approach or see him touch the Triforce. Hyrule and Ganondorf are to be sealed beneath the waves forever, he wishes. Never to be heard of or mentioned again. And the Gods, ever benevolent, listen, water pouring down over the tower. Ganondorf becomes enraged, and the final battle begins.

* * *

Links stabs the fully powered Master Sword right into Ganondorf's forehead, watching in shock as the man slowly turns into stone-into a new pedestal for the sword to rest in forever. As Hyrule continues to flood, Daphnes comes to them one last time, spiriting them away to the surface, choosing to stay with his lost kingdom.

Link desperately reaches out to the King of Red Lions, the companion he's known on this entire journey. But he floats to the surface and loses the connection to Hyrule forever.

* * *

When he comes to, he and Tetra are floating in the middle of the ocean, Tetra's pirate crew coming into view. Link sighs in relief, because finally, after so long, this adventure is over.

He can finally go home.

* * *

But when he does return home, somethings feels off. He's happy that he's with his grandmother and Aryll, but there's something nagging in the back of his mind the short time he's back on Outset while the pirates restock.

He loves his home, his family, his island, but the sea calls him.

He looks at the back of his hand, where the insignia of the Triforce is just barely visible, the right triangle just a little darker than the other two.

Link wants nothing more than to continue his journey.

* * *

With the wind guiding them, Link and the pirates set off to find new land. A place where they can create a _new_ Hyrule.

* * *

 _author's notes:_

 _oh hello ffnet its been a while lol  
me? loving novelizations of video games because i can give link distinct personalities? you betcha  
its 1:30 in the morning im tired_


End file.
